Apple's home head leaves, and new products launch, on HomeKit Insider

In this week's episode of HomeKit Insider we talk about Apple's home services head's departure, a new study on smart home adoption rates, and a few new product launches.

Apple had someHomeKit news of its own this week. Its head of home services, Sam Jadallah has left the company. We discuss the implications of this and what it could mean for the future of Apple's smart home plans.

A few devices were announced this week too, such as the Terncy Light. This ceiling mounted light is a low-profile fixture that supports HomeKit and Adaptive Lighting. It does require a hub, but the hub has a built-in audio output that can be used as an AirPlay 2 speaker.

There were two app updates to chat about, such as SceneFlow coming to the iPad after being previously available on iPhone. Viz Designer is an all-new app that allows you to create your own personalized HomeKit app.

We also spent some time discussing a new Parks Associates study that surveyed 10,000 homes to identify the growth in smart home tech. Doorbells and locks were the fastest growing category this year, while smart TVs reached 56 percent adoption.

Smart speakers also reached 53 percent adoption. The study further revealed that 82 percent of households have at least one streaming services, while 58 percent still subscribe to cable TV.

Listener questions

This week we picked a few listener questions to touch on.

ThatNerdJB wanted to know if it is possible to switch which device is your primary Home Hub.

Tim Rand asked if we had tried the Hub for HomeKit app on the App Store and how well it worked.

Links from the show

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